Often times choosing a suitable topic proves to be the most difficult part of writing a law journal note or comment. A suitable topic is one that is both of current interest in the legal community and one that is of interest to the author. But where does one find such a topic and how does one ensure the topic has not already been written on?
This page provides an overview of the topic selection and preemption process and provides links to sources that may provide helpful during the process. In particular, this page covers:
Your goal in writing a note or comment is to provide a unique perspective on an issue of law, take a position on an emerging legal issue, or offer a new interpretation of an existing rule of law. There are a number of angles you can take to accomplish this goal. Below are some examples of different angles with some corresponding possible search terms.
| Type of note | Search tip or technique |
|---|---|
| Circuit split |
circuit /2 split! AND (topic) (split OR conflict) /s (court OR circuit OR authority) |
| Seminal case / Novel question | "first impression" |
| State law comparison | Use 50 state surveys on Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg |
| Comment on case or statute | Run citation through Keycite and Shepard's to locate additional cases and commentary |
Internet resources: There are many fine articles, blog posts, research guides and videos dedicated to topic selection for law journal. a basic natural language search for 'writing note law review' or something similar will reveal these. For example, LexisNexis has a Topic Selection and Preemption Youtube video here and accompanying tip sheet here. Of particular note here is YouTube. Many librarians and vendor representatives have recorded their training sessions and, again, a simple natural language search of YouTube should reveal these..
One of the common questions for those working on case comments is: how do I make sure I have all cases about this case or topic. There are a few simple steps one can take to ensure completeness.
Of course, once you find a topic you'll want to ensure that your topic has not been written about before or 'preempted.' There are a few steps that you can take to satisfy that you're not writing on a topic that's already been covered.
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In addition to the resources/ techniques mentioned above, there are a myriad of other helpful resources for further investigation.
Academic Texts
Academic Legal Writing: law review articles, student notes, seminar papers, and getting on law review by 
Long's a Short and Happy Guide to Advanced Legal Research, 2d by 
Scholarly Writing: ideas, examples & execution by 
Scholarly Writing for Law Students by Scholarly Articles
Eugene Volokh, Writing a Student Article, 48 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1998).
Richard Delgado, How to Write a Law Review Article, 20 U. San Francisco L. Rev. 445 (1986).
Heather Meeker, Stalking the Golden Topic: A Guide to Locating and Selecting Topics for Legal Research Papers, 1996 Utah L. Rev. 917 (1996). This article gives practical advice on how to identify a strong topic for academic legal writing and describes a preemption check process
